Christopher Saunders

Stockholders of embattled online direct marketer LifeMinders voted Wednesday to sell their shares to Cross Media Marketing, giving the green light to a merger that will become effective at the close of business. In July, New York-based Cross Media, an online and offline direct marketing player, offered $68.1 million in either cash or a mixture […]

Ad network 24/7 Media is taking steps to boost its own offerings to marketers and advertisers, with two new additions to its ad serving and sweepstakes product lineups. First, the New York-based company said its iPromotions sweepstakes unit would begin offering what it described as a viral marketing product, based on Instant Messaging technology. Using […]

Analytical software giant SPSS is teaming up with AOL Time Warner to deliver what they hope is the killer app for consumer research. Under an agreement between the two firms, Chicago-based SPSS and its SPSS MR division — which provides analysis technology for market research — now has the exclusive rights to distribute survey data […]

In the latest effort by the biggest players in Web media to broaden their reach to consumers, Yahoo! said it would begin promoting software that places Yahoo! icons on users’ desktops, distributing it online and through an agreement with Compaq Computer Corp. The initiative aims to encourage users to download Yahoo! Essentials, an application that […]

One of the co-founders of online advertising network Real Media is leaving the company, which has sparked new chatter that the company may be close to a merger or outright sale. Gil Beyda, who with Dave Morgan co-founded New York-based Real Media in 1995, said he would leave the company by the end of October. […]

The Interactive Advertising Bureau released on Wednesday a glossary of terms used in the digital media business — but which also hints at the group’s hotly anticipated guidelines on ad measurement. According to the New York-based IAB, an industry association representing media sellers, the glossary is meant to help dispel some of the confusion hampering […]

As federal and state health authorities urge doctors to curb the writing of prescriptions for anthrax-fighting antibiotics like ciprofloxacin, a second campaign is being launched to keep unscrupulous online marketers from duping consumers seeking to get the drug any way they can. Increasingly, health agencies and healthcare industry groups are warning about e-mail promotions promising […]

Despite the widespread, protracted economic downturn, business-to-business Internet startups are actually spending more on marketing than they were in 2000, according to a new study. According to an annual study by San Francisco-based marketing consultancy Launch Pad and communications firm Blanc & Otus, who surveyed marketing executives at B2B Internet firms nationwide, marketers are increasing […]

Wireless text messaging can prove an effective, inexpensive tool for cross-media marketers, according to a new study by interactive agency Viant and the London Business School. But, the study’s authors — Rajiv Advani and Khaled Choudhury of Viant, and Patrick Barwise, an LBS professor — say that companies are unlikely to discover this, since they’re […]

Microsoft Corp. this week unveiled the details of its online campaign for its upcoming Xbox video game system, involving a promotion with marketing partner Taco Bell. The effort will see Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft running a number of ads across a number of gaming sites, including CNET Networks’ GameSpot, and GameSpy Industries’ Mplayer Entertainment Network, which […]

Pop princess Britney Spears will be the latest advertiser across AOL Time Warner’s bevy of properties, as the New York-based media giant continues inking cross-platform marketing deals. Through the agreement with Spears and her label, Jive Records — terms of which were not disclosed — AOL Time Warner will promote the songstress, her music, her […]

In a bid to boost its bottom-line, interactive shop Agency.com plans to roll out site analytics services — despite the fact that in doing so, it’s entering a sector dominated by well-established rivals. The Alley-based firm’s new Site Analytics offering relies in large part on technology developed in-house that records and analyzes Web site logfiles. […]